Imagining the Future
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Film Review: "The Yes Men Fix the World"
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Bicycle Inspirations From Copenhagen to Portland
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Making a Global Climate Wake-up Call on Sept. 21
The Seeds of a New Kind of Energy
Published November 20, 2009 @ 11:52AM PT
First, a confession.
Last week, in my introductory blog entry I lied to you, the reader. What’s worse, I did it knowing full well that I was lying through my dirty little teeth.
In that entry I said that the highest wind densities in the country are above North Dakota. That was a lie. Well, okay, lie is a strong word. North Dakota does have the strongest wind you can feel when you lick your finger and stick it in the air.
But it’s not the strongest in the country.
Pope: Global Warming Will Not Starve the World
Published November 20, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Monday, on the opening day of the World Summit on Food Security, Pope Benedict XVI tried to put the panic about global-warming-induced food crises to rest.
According to the UK's Times Online, the Pope said that the Earth can produce enough for everyone despite the ravages climate change might inflict. It is greed, he said, that has driven up prices and increased hunger in the world.
His remarks emphasized that food should not be treated like any other commodity, especially because "there is no cause and effect relationship between population growth and hunger." Nobel Prize-winning economic Amartya Sen has long commented that hunger is not a problem of production but one of access.
What Will Global Warming Look Like on the Ground?
Published November 19, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
It's easy to talk about global warming on grandiose terms (the word "global" is in the title, after all). But it's sometimes harder to imagine what the concept really means for our daily lives. Some of us want to know what will happen when all the analysts and number-crunchers have gone home and the climatic disturbances start appearing one by one.
The UK's Telegraph recently published an article detailing some of the changes those of us not exposed to the extremes of a drowning island or a melting Himalaya might experience as the climate warms. What can we expect? Here's a run-down of some of the possibilities in Europe.
Climate Action Goes Creative
Published October 31, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Last Saturday's International Day of Climate Action was, as Mike Smith wrote on this blog, "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." Not only that, but it was fun.
The action was structured around the concept of 350, which is the parts per million of carbon dioxide we can afford to have in our atmosphere.
Enthusiastic participants all over the world made visual depictions of 350 -- using everything from their bodies to sandbags to sailboats to a flotilla of yellow balloons -- and photographed them for the world to see. The curious one that heads this post was generated by lantern walkers in Sydney, Australia.
So what's so important about 350 and how can you get in on the fun?
What Is a Green-Collar Job?
Published September 07, 2009 @ 04:19PM PT
"Green-collar jobs" have become a daily facet of the national conversation on energy policy, as well as economic revival. At the most fundamental, these are jobs that link rapid decarbonization of the nation's energy economy, with reviving the nation's eviscerated manufacturing base.
Here's how Apollo Alliance chair Phil Angelides defined green-collar jobs to Time Magazine last year:
It has to pay decent wages and benefits that can support a family. It has to be part of a real career path, with upward mobility. And it needs to reduce waste and pollution and benefit the environment.
The green jobs vision is creating some refreshing new advocacy partnerships, like the Blue Green Alliance, a joint effort of environmental groups and labor unions.
And it's not a particularly partisan issue -- or at least it wasn't a few years ago. The expansion of the green-collar jobs sector got its first major federal boost in 2007, with the passage of the Green Jobs Act, as Title X of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
Street Art as Solar-powered Biofuel Generator
Published September 02, 2009 @ 03:57PM PT
From vertical farms to solar forests, neutralizing the carbon footprint of urban centers is one of the most popular trends in design.
Los Angeles firm Emergent Architecture has come up with a concept that combines public art with creating biofuel. Called a "photobioreactor," the aquarium-like structure would contain green algae colonies, also known as pond scum, which produce an oil that can be processed into a biodiesel fuel that can replace petroleum-based diesel fuel.
Even better, green algae consumes carbon dioxide, which is the leading driver of human-propelled global warming.
The system would use "tuned LED lights which vary in color and intensity to support algae growth at different stages of development, maximizing output," according to Emergent. (I'm not quite sure what this means, but suspect it has something to do with recent developments in using nano-materials to create LEDs that surpass their conventional cousins in the colors of light they can produce.)
A thin-film solar array strung into the branches of nearby street trees would collect energy during the day; stored in batteries, it would power the bioreactor's systems at night.
The firm has imagined a Los Angeles-based installation of bioreactors into the sides of buildings, as well as a public art piece for a Perth, Australia involving freestanding bioreactors built to evoke the shapes of cellular structures.
Rather than just stand and symbolize something, say the designers, the installation would also be doing something useful: using and creating clean energy. "Now, one could argue that artwork shouldn't actually do work," they acknowledge. But "if this decade in human civilization has presented us with any resonant knowledge about our world, it is that energy is culturally precious, that it is possibly the ultimate medium.
"Energy may indeed be one of the most timely mediums for art."
Image via Emergent Architecture
Via Solar Feeds
Videos to Watch: Home Building for an Unstable Climate
Published August 30, 2009 @ 08:34PM PT
The chances are very good that East Biloxi, Missippi will be hit again by a future hurricane at least as severe as 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Rising ocean temperatures due to global warming are already creating more intense coastal storms, many climatologists say, and that's likely to just get worse in coming decades.
But as I wrote yesterday, the seven families participating in Biloxi Model Home Project didn't want to leave the neighborhood. So architects working with the project created designs that factored in future floods and high winds.
Here are a few videos about the project and some of the designs, which are available for free use and adaptation at the Open Architecture Network:
1. Porchdog
Porchdog is one of the designs created for the East Biloxi rebuilding project.
2. Principal Voices: Design for good
Architecture for Humanity founder Cameron Sinclair (a fellow former Worldchanging blogger) explains his "design for good" philosophy, spotlighting the Biloxi Model Home Program.
3. Caesarstone Video
Describes the destruction left behind in Biloxi by Hurricane Katrina, and visits the site of one of the Biloxi Model Homes to describe how their designs meet the challenge of living as safely as possible in the storm zone, while also keeping the homes affordable.
